Cattle-guard.



C. P. REED'.

CATTLE GUARD. APPLIOATION FILED SH12?, 190s.

Patented oct; 25, 1910.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEroE.

CONWELL P. REED, 0F BRIDGEPORT, TEXAS, ASSIGNR OF ONE-HALF T0 SAMUEL J.

v CULWELL, OF BRIDGEPORT, TEXAS.

CATTLE-GUARD.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 25, 1910.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CoNwELL P. REED, a citizen of the United States,residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Wise, State of Texas, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Cattle-Guards; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make -and use the same.v

, This invention relates to improvements in cattle guards and hasparticular reference to a device of that kind adapted to be placed oneither side and between the rails of a railway track in order to preventcattle walking along the track.

One object of the invention is the provision of a guard provided with aplurality of rollers, the latter being journaled on roller bearingscarried by a plurality of shafts so that the slightest pressure producedby the feet of an animal on the rollers will cause them to rotate,whereby the animal will jslilde onthe guard and have a tendency toAnother object is the provision of a guard formed of hingedly unitedsections which may be folded one upon the other and occupy acomparatively small space for packing and shipping.

With these and other objects in View as will more fully hereinafterappear, the present invention consists in certain novel details ofconstruction and arrangement of parts, hereinafter fully described,illustrated in the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointedout in the appended claims; it being understood that -various changes inthe form, proportion, size and minor details of the device may be madewithout departing from the spirit or sacriicing any of the advantages ofthe invention.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of the specification :*Figure1 is a plan view of railway track and showing my improved device appliedthereto. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view approximately on theline 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detailed sectional plan view of aportion of one of the shafts, also showing the rollers in section androller bearings and means for holding the rollers in spaced relation.Fig.

1 is a sectional end elevation on the line 4.--4 of Fig. 3.

Similar numerals of reference vare employed to designate correspondingparts throughout.

The sections comprising that portion of the guard located between therails are designated in general by the numerals and 6. These sectionsare frame like structures and of a size to nicely fit between the baseflanges of the rails. As shown the sections include the side walls 7;these members being preferably formed of single pieces of sheet metaloblong in contour and substantially rectangular Ain cross section. Theupper sides of the side walls 7 incline upwardly from one end andterminate in overlapping lugs 8 and 9. Owing to the sections 5 and 6being of the same size it is evident lthat one of the lugs will bevslightly off-set in order to bear upon the lug of the opposite section.The lugs 8 and 9 are provided with alining openings for the reception ofa common pintle 10 which serves to pivotally unite the sections. A

Secured in the'opposite side walls 7 are the opposite ends of aplurality of shafts 11. These members are preferably of metal and arespaced equal distances apart and located adjacent the upper edges of theside wallsand 'areso positioned that they will lie in an inclined planebelow and parallel with the planes of the upper inclined edges of thesides.

The highest points of the side walls 7 are slightly above the plane ofthe track and uniting the lower or free ends of the side walls arebearing plates v12 and 13. The bearing plates 12 and 13 are providedwith suitable openings for the reception of spikes or nails by means ofwhich the sections are firmly secured to the cross-ties, the sidewallsbeing disposed longitudinally of the track.

Journaled on the shafts 11 are a plurality of rollers 14. These rollersare arranged in staggered order that is to say, the rollers on adjacentshafts alternate, as shown in Fig. 1. In order that the rollers may havea smooth bearing on the shafts and at the same time be held in spacedrelation the following construction is employed By reference to Fig. 3it will be seen that each shaft is provided at intervals throughout itslength with circular grooves 15 and arranged within these grooves are aplurality of roller bearings 16. rlhe roller bearings are of suchdiameters that their surfaces will be in a plane with the outer surfacesof the shaft to which they are applied and the openings in the rollers14 will be .of a size to loosely receive the shafts. With thisconstruction it is evident when the rollers are positioned as shown inFig. 3 they will revolve on the bearings 16. In order to prevent endwisemovement of the rollers on the shafts spacing sleeves 17 are employed.These members are preferably formed of pieces of metallic tubing of asize to nicely receive the shafts 11 and in the arrangement of partsthese sleeves are. designed to be placed between the outer-most rollersand side walls of the sections and between the adjacent rollers on eachof the shafts. lVith this construction it is evident that the rollerswill be held in spaced rela-tion on the shafts and at the same time willbe free to rotate on their bearings.

Reference now to Fig. 1 discloses the fact that located on the outersides of the track rails and bearing on the cross-ties are sections 18and 19 similar to the sections 5 and G. The sections 18 and 19 areprovided with transverse shafts 2O similar to the shafts 11 and alsowith rollers 21 similar to the rollers 14. The said shafts 20 haveannular recesses and roller bearings for the rollers 21 similar to theconstruction already described for the sections 5 and G. The sections 1Sand 19 are hingedly united at their highest points by pintles 10 and thelower or free ends of their side walls are connected by bearing platesQ2 and Q3, similar to the bearing plates 12 and 13 and performing thesame function as that recited for the said bearing plates 12 and 13.

Owing to the fact that the side walls of the sections are disposedlongitudinally of the track the shafts are transverse with respect tothe track and the inclines formed by the sections are longitudinal ofthe track so that should an animal get upon the guard and slip thereonthe animal will move longitudinally of the track and will not be likelyto get its hoofs caught between the sides of the sections and the trackrails. Furthermore, owing to the fact that the sections are pivotallyconnected together, their angle of inclination may be varied as may berequired by the varying spaces between the ties on which the bearingplates rest and are secured, and hence the guard may be adjustedlongitudinally as may be required by the extent `of the space betweenthe ties on which the guard is mounted.

F rom the foregoing it can be seen that I have provided a device whichis exceedingly simple in structure and comparatively ineX pensive tomanufacture, embodying few parts and these so arranged that the dangerof derangement will be reduced to a minimum.

IVhat is claimed is A. cattle guard consisting of a pair of frameshaving spaced overlapping hinge lugs at their meeting ends, a singlepintle passed through the spaced hinge lugs and hingedly connecting theframes together, spaced shafts having their ends ournaled in the sidesof the frames, and overlapping rollers arranged on said shafts instaggered relation.

In testimony whereof, I aliix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

CONIVELL P. REED.

Vitnesses SAM J. CULWELL, W. E. GREEN.

